Slippery When Wet

It was 1987 and I was 15 years old.  Bon Jovi was coming to Shreveport!  GASP  I LOVED Bon Jovi and I mean the obsession was totally out of control!  I had a guy from high school tell me not long ago on fb that is the only memory of me... me and a bon jovi jacket I would wear.  I know how to leave an impression right?

I BEGGED my parents to let me go with some friends, I didn't win that "fight".  I was too young yada yada, which is honestly exactly what I would tell my kids when they are 15.  Maybe another year and it would have been different.  I cried and I cried and I cried.  I hated listening to EVERYONE at my school talking about going to the concert that day because I truly felt that I was the ONLY kid that would not be at this concert and it broke my heart.

I was a "latch key kid" so every day when I got home I would call mom just to let her know I was home.  I can remember this phone call as if it happened this morning:

Hi mom I am home.

Okay, well get your homework done because Daddy is wanting to go to a basketball game tonight and he was going to take you.  And change your clothes, but don't wear a short skirt or anything because you will be climbing up bleachers.

Yes ma'am.

So dad got home and off we went.  We ended up eating at a restaurant across the street from Hirsch, I think it may have been ElChico's??  This broke my heart even more, thanks dad for bringing me to a restaurant where I can look out the window and see ALL my friends going into Hirsch for what is surely to be the BEST concert EVER!  Then this conversation started:

Big Girl I think we should go over to the stadium and we will stand in line but when we get to the front I will just push you in through the gate.

Yeah right Big Daddy!

No, seriously I think we can do it.

Uh huh sure I WISH!

Big Girl I am telling you it will work.

Big Daddy it won't work I would get caught, you are so funny.

So he paid the check and off we go to the basketball game.  Except we turned... into the coliseum parking lot.  My heart kind of skipped a beat.  I asked what we were doing and he said I told you I am going to push you through.  So we start walking up and get in line and he is still insisting that he is going to just push me through the line.  To this day I never know when to take my dad serious.

We get to the front and my heart is just racing and then it STOPPED when he pulled out 2 tickets for the concert!  Now normally on any other day I may have been slightly embarrassed to be 15 and at a rock concert with my dad but honestly it never crossed my mind.  The only thing that did was my dad is COOL!  I knew he didn't really care for the opening acts but he sat there and grinned because he knew that I was the happiest kid ever that night.  But when Bon Jovi hit the stage I think he actually uncrossed his arms and I may have even caught a foot tapping on the floor to the music.  :)

A year or two later Bon Jovi came back to Shreveport and my best friend and I went, but I can PROMISE you I thought of Big Daddy that night!

PS   To this day I am not sure why my mom told me not to wear a short skirt, I think Jon Bon Jovi would have loved that!  :-)